Service workers at Pocono Medical Center plan 3-day strike

Pocono Medical Center service workers are set to strike for a second time in two months if management doesn't recognize a vote they cast last year for a closed shop union.

CHAD SMITH

Pocono Medical Center service workers are set to strike for a second time in two months if management doesn't recognize a vote they cast last year for a closed shop union.

The service workers — housekeepers, technicians and secretaries — this time would strike for three days, according the Service Employees International Union. The service workers already went on strike for one day on Feb. 10, with the same demands.

Workers want a closed shop, which means they want all 550 service workers to be required to join the union. If union membership is compulsory, the workers believe they will have a stronger union and more bargaining power to fight for higher wages and better working conditions.

Pocono Medical Center spokesman Geoffrey Roche said that doctors, nurses and other hospital employees will not be on strike on the days that the service workers are proposing to strike — March 17 to 19.

Roche said the level of service that the hospital provides will not be affected by the strike. He said that management's position has not changed. It believes that service workers should be allowed "to choose whether or not to join the union and pay union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs."

In October 2010, a majority of the hospital's service workers voted for the closed shop, but management isn't recognizing that vote. The terms of a new three-year contract management is proposing offers a pay raise but calls for an open shop. Workers rejected that proposed contract.

The service workers represent about 27 percent of the hospital's overall staff of 2,050.